CinemascopeMovie-Highlights of the year 2009

Highlights 2009

Aries2009
again there was a lot of action going on in theaters – for example
the fourth installment of the “Fast & Furious”,
the second “Transformers”-movie,
the blockbuster “2012”. There was also another
simple – but
effective – fighter’s story, narrated in the appropriately named
movie “Fighting”. Some of all that was entertaining,
but very little was really special. A much more profound and thus more interesting
struggle was shown in “The
Wrestler”. This movie combines the Aries-quality of fighting with Pisces-motifs
like weakness, failure and disappointment and provided Mickey Rourke with the
role of his life, the aging Wrestling star Randy “The Ram”.

TaurusFor
me the most beautiwful Taurus-movie of the year was by far Almodovars “Broken
Embraces” (“Los abrazos rotos“). It is an abundant
film experience and a sensual delight, in which the director once again
succeeds
in a perfect manner to stage the colors and shapes of everyday life with
great pleasure and enjoyment. The story too deals with Taurus-topics like
love and (in)security, Eros and beauty, the fear of dramatic changes and
the far-reaching treatment of their long-term aftereffects. Other interesting
and/or typical Taurus-films have been “The Secret
Life of Bees”, “Home” and “Shopaholic”.

Gemini
One of the most interesting films carrying Gemini-energy surely was Quentin
Tarantinos “Inglorious Basterds”. As a war-movie
it also
emphasizes Aries, yet beside the intelligently staged (Aries-) visuals,
it focuses on dialog, quotes and references and sparks a firework of
amazing characters, sharp talk and quirky ideas. “State
of Play”, a suspenseful crime story
about a newspaper reporter, who on his quest for truth gets dubious information
to piece together,
also brings Gemini-motifs to the screen. As well does “Brothers
Bloom”,
a film that is telling a clever story about telling stories: two brothers
muddle through life on lies and deceit. Beside the various hobbies that
a rich heiress pursues, a valuable old book plays a role in their last
story...

Cancer
Several films dealt with Cancer-typical familiy issues – e.g. “Rachel
Getting Married”, “Away we go” and “My Sister's
Keeper”, the one that probably tackles the most controversial topic.
It raises questions about care and responsibility, when little Anna,
who was born to provide necessary donations for her Leukemia-stricken
sister, starts rebelling against her use as a “spare parts warehouse”.
But not only family-movies correspond to the emotional Cancer-quality.
The lovable animated film “Up” and a heartbreaking story
about true and deep friendship between dog and man in “Hachiko:
A Dog's Tale” are also charged with emotion and sentimentality – pure
Cancer-energy.

LeoLeo-films often involve tales from the show business – and the
theme of the individual's path that leads against all odds to unique
and true self-fulfillment. One example was the Oscar-winner „Slumdog
Millionaire“, the Bollywood-influenced life- and lovestory of a
youngster from the slums, who is about to get rich in a quizshow.
The typical Leo-film especially emphasizes celebration, mostly the celebration
of life and the lust for it. This can be found in movies like „Small
Crime“ („Mikro Eglima“), which basks in hot Greek sunlight,
or Ang Lees „Taking Woodstock“. „This Is It“ also is a celebration, celebrating the „King
of Pop“. The documentary shows the recently deceased Michael Jackson
in rehearsals for his planned concerts and thereby celebrates not only
his uniqueness as an artist, but the creative process of the whole team
which slightly resembles a king's court.

VirgoVirgo-themes as cleanliness and order were taken on in strikingly many films about laundry and cleaning, e.g. in the documentaries „Soap and Water“ („Wasser und Seife“) and „The Wondrous World of Laundry“ as well as in the feature film „Sunshine Cleaning“.
Yet a strong Virgo-character was given by Clint Eastwood in his swan song to Dirty Harry, the quiet but very impressive „Gran Torino“. Eastwood plays a morose misanthropist with strongly emphasized Virgo- and Capricorn-features, who only comes alive when he can fix things, but suffers from the rampant loss of values and decency in his world. While deliberately getting involved with his new Asian neighbours, he gets the chance to make himself useful again and take on responsibility.

Libra
Beside all the inevitable, more or less entertaining romantic comedies –„The
Ugly Truth“, „The Proposal“, „Ghosts of Girlfriends
Past“ etc. – that are dealing with relationships in an elegant
and light Libra-way, the biopic „Coco Avant Chanel“ combined
different Libra-motifs: Elegance and diplomacy are pivotal Libra-features
both of which the protagonist aptly employs – in her private life
as well as in her business. Fashion and the culturally groundbreaking reshaping
of women’s clothing and a redefinition of elegance as the absence
of everything ornamental and obstructive are focused on and put into beautiful
images.

ScorpioScorpio-energy is a popular theme in cinema in various forms. Lars von
Trier's newest film „Antichrist“ became very controversial
in september due to it's extreme radicalism. It presents a psychological
tour de force: After their son's death, a psychotherapist attempts a
kind of vivisection on his wife’s soul by forcing her to confront
her greatest fears. He triggers a furious and bloody fight, which crosses
all boundaries and literally cuts to their bones.
To live in permanent danger and the presence of death is very Scorpio-like.
Kathryn Bigelow, a remarkable action-director, explores the consequences
of such pressure on the human psyche in her intense and Adrenaline-filled
character-study “The Hurt Locker”, where she
follows the extreme everyday life of a military bomb squad in Iraq.
Other notable films on Scorpio-motifs were “The Reader” (“Der
Vorleser”), “Orphan” and “Law Abiding Citizen”.

SagittariusTo
discover new worlds and broaden ones horizon is a typical Sagittarius-theme.
And 2009 brought the perfect film on this theme: „Star
Trek“,
the prequel to all Star Trek movies and series, in which hoodlum Kirk
and cool Vulcanian Mr.Spock meet for the first time to furthermore travel
the universe together, „seek out new life-forms and new civilizations;
to boldly go where no one has gone before.” James Camerons long
awaited film “Avatar” is also a tale about
the discovery of a strange new world and the resulting gain in knowledge.
But films as “Milk”, a biopic about the important gay civil
rights activist Harvey Milk, or “The Informant!”, which is
illustrating megalomania and manic behaviour in his protagonist, are also
dealing with Sagittarius-topics.

CapricornFans
have longingly awaited the fourth part of the John-Connor-saga „Terminator
Salvation“. With lots of grim action around the arduous
fight between the last human survivors and the machines in a deserted,
mostly gray
coloured world, this movie brought strong Capricorn-images to the screen.
Other Capricorn-films dealt mostly with topics like guilt, responsibility,
atonement – for example the South African film „Disgrace“ or
the British „Boy A“. Capricorn-motifs as
tradition and the effects of repressive upbringing and abusive fatherly
authority are tackled in Michael Hanekes new work “The
White Ribbon” (“Das weiße Band”). Filmed
in strict black and white, the reduced narrative style as well as the
atmosphere
of subliminal menace speak of Capricorn with a strong streak of Scorpio.

Aquarius
A community of the slightly different is an Aquarius-motif, that emerged
last year in such different films as the graphic novel adaptation „Watchmen“and
Michael Mann's biopic about the last year in the life of notorious American
gangster John Dillinger: „Public Enemies“.
If it is superheroes or gangsters with the image of a Robin Hood – these
are characters, who stand above common morality and social conventions,
thus embodying Aquarian
characteristics as aloofness, love of freedom or eccentricity. Michael
Moore, director of famous documentary movies, likes to present himself
as an entertaining yet provocative revolutionary. In “Capitalism:
A Love Story“ he again raises uncomfortable questions, this
time addressed to the financial world. And as always he is looking for
idealistic visions
of a better world, typical Aquarian ideals.
More typical Aquarius-energy could be found in quirky movies like „Brüno“, „Crank
2: High Voltage“ or „Ricky“.

Pisces
With „The Limits of Control“ in 2009 Jim Jarmusch
delivered a surrealist and dreamy looking film with a story almost impossible
to
narrate and leaving the impression of a journey through the collective
unconscious. With a great cast the film became a mystery play of film history,
full of spiritual truisms, calling for a revolution of perception (Uranus
in Pisces!). Other
visually astounding films came especially from Asia: “Cinematic
madness” is a frequently used term referring to „Love
Exposure“ („Ai
no mukidashi“), a film that includes family drama and martial arts,
romance and splatter, religious fanaticism and sexual obsessions. Not only
it dissolves genre limits but all cinematic conventions and mainly offers
an absurd meditation on the nature of love. Park Chan-Wook's Vampire-film “Thirst” (“Bakjwi”)
in a visually impressive way tells about the inner conflicts a selfless,
devoted priest – a perfect Pisces-archetype – suffers, after
he became Vampire – a classic Scorpio archetype – due to an
infected blood transfusion. Pisces-topics like forgiveness, dissolution
and (lost) dreams are also playing important roles in remarkable films
as “Revanche”, “The
Door” (“Die Tür”) and “The
Fall”.

Vesna Ivkovic

Vesna
Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and
history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology
and different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various
paths of body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance,
Yoga, Qi Gong and several other methods of body work and motion arts.
In 1993 she discovered astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated
in 2004 in Markus Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology
Center Berlin. You can find out more about the author and her work on
her own website www.astrosemiotics.de

The Cinemascope is meant to give an overview of current movies and their main themes from an astrosemiotical perspective (i.e.: regarding film as semiotic system and translating it into the astrological semiotic system). A well made movie not only has a story and a certain theme, it also provides a special atmosphere, a certain feeling and it draws us into its very own world. This basic quality that is contrived through characters, plot, setting and many other components also translates into one or more astrological principles. Quite simply: a fast-paced action-flick confronts us with plain Aries energy, a horror-movie evokes Scorpio-like abysmal depths and fears etc. We step out of the theatre and – if the film succeeded in sucking us in – find ourselves dwelling on and engaging in that special energetic quality.

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